Asylum seekers win court battle against 'appalling' conditions at former army barracks
Watch: ITV News Meridian's Tony Green spoke to one man sent to Napier Barracks who likened it to 'no better than a jail'
Six asylum seekers who brought a legal challenge against "appalling" conditions at Napier Barracks have won their High Court bid.
The former army barracks in Kent have been used to house hundreds of asylum seekers since last September, despite the Home Office being warned by Public Health England that it was unsuitable.
The six men, all said to be "survivors of torture and/or human trafficking", argued the Home Office is unlawfully accommodating people at the barracks and conditions at the camp pose "real and immediate risks to life and of ill-treatment".
The High Court ruled on Thursday (3 June) that the Home Secretary’s decision to use Napier Barracks to accommodate destitute asylum seeking men was 'unlawful and irrational'.
The High Court also found that the Home Secretary had ignored the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate’s report that the arrangements 'failed to provide adequate protection' to asylum seekers from serious risks of fire.
During the hearing, the men's lawyers said that accommodating asylum seekers at the barracks was a breach of their human rights and could amount to false imprisonment.
They also argued the Home Office failed to put in place a process to prevent "particularly vulnerable asylum seekers" from being housed at the barracks.
Tom Hickman QC - representing four of the six men - described the camp as "squalid, ill-equipped, lacking in personal privacy and, most fundamentally of all, unsafe", with no mental health support and only one nurse on site.
He also said moving the men to the former Ministry of Defence camp "exposed them to an exceptionally high risk" of contracting Covid-19.
Almost 200 people tested positive for coronavirus during an outbreak at the barracks earlier this year, senior Home Office officials told MPs in February.Lisa Giovannetti QC, representing the Home Office, said in written submissions that the department accepted there is "a particular risk of Covid-19 transmission in congregate residential settings".
Ms Giovannetti said the Home Office "has taken reasonable steps to ensure that persons who are specifically vulnerable to severe illness or death from Covid-19 are not placed in a congregate setting".
A Home Office spokesman said: "During the height of the pandemic, to ensure asylum seekers were not left destitute, additional accommodation was required at extremely short notice.
"Such accommodation provided asylum seekers a safe and secure place to stay. Throughout this period our accommodation providers and sub-contractors have made improvements to the site and continue to do so.
"It is disappointing that this judgment was reached on the basis of the site prior to the significant improvement works which have taken place in difficult circumstances. Napier will continue to operate and provide safe and secure accommodation.
"We will carefully consider the ruling and our next steps."